Yuki enters ITF men's event semis

New Delhi,
Thu, 23 Apr 2009NI Wire

Indian wildcard and the Australian Open junior champion Yuki Bhambri continuing his good performance at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) men's event Thursday entered the $15,000 BHEL Futures semi-finals at the DLTA complex in New Delhi.

The 16-year-old, who never crossed the quarter-finals stage, overcame the 24-year-old Rohan Gajjar, 6-4, 6-4, in their first meeting. Both players were good at their serves. Yuki however made fewer errors than his opponent.

Though Yuki was broken early in the first set, but he come back immediately to broke Gajjar again in the ninth game before finally serving out the set.

In the second set, the Delhi youngster affected the decisive break in the seventh game of the second set with a whipping forehand winner followed by brilliant pass.

A clever drop in the tenth game brought up two match points for Yuki and he sealed the set and match as Gajjar netted a return.

Yuki will now meet Japanese Masato Hatanaka who beat seventh-seeded Sean Thornley of England, 7-6(6), 6-1.

Earlier on Wednesday, Yuki had sailed to the quarter final by defeating Japanese Hiroki Moriya for the third successive time in two years, outclassing the fourth-seed 6-2, 6-2, to enter the quarter-finals.